Maintaining the sterility of drinking water supplies is a major factor in reducing the health risks to the human population. While large metropolitan water systems can make use of highly toxic chlorine gas for sterilizing drinking water, such systems are impractical in remote locations which lack highly trained personnel and the equipment to maintain the systems. To be effective in rural settings, a system must be capable of running for long periods of time with little or no maintenance. In addition, the raw materials required by the system must be readily available.
Systems based on the electrolytic production of chlorine and ozone based germicidal agents are particularly attractive. These systems require only electricity and common salt as raw materials. One such system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,761,208 to Gram, et al. which is incorporated herein by reference. This system utilizes an electrolytical cell to generate a mixed stream of oxidants including chlorine compounds, ozone, and H.sub.2 O.sub.2 from common salt. This oxidant stream may be added directly to the drinking water at a high dilution ratio, thereby sterilizing the drinking water without causing the water to become unpalatable. This system is particularly attractive because of its simplicity and long maintenance free operation time.
While this system represents a major improvement over the prior systems, it is less than optimal. For example, the most effective mixed oxidant stream has been found to be an oxidant stream in which the ratio of ozone and H.sub.2 O.sub.2 to the chlorine based compounds is maximized. In addition to providing more effective sterilization, the ozone and H.sub.2 O.sub.2 oxidants provide a more palatable drinking water supply.
Broadly, it is the object of the present invention to provide an improved mixed oxidant generating system.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a mixed oxidant generating system with increased ratios of ozone to chorine based compounds.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the invention and the accompanying drawings.